Getting Started
VisualKey is a Graphics Sketchbook, in the sense that it enables you to work directly with Shaders, Meshes, Window, Input, Texture, Audio, Text and Light systems, each at the level you need. For example, you can use a pre-created Rectangle Mesh, or you can create your own Mesh with the necessary Vertices and optional Indices.
Installation
To get started you must first install VisualKey, at the moment it works with Windows 64 bits and Linux 64 bits. To download the installer go to the releases tab in the GitHub repo.
In the Windows installer be sure to enable Add to Path either for all Users or just for yourself.
The installed version is self-contained, since it contains the Mono utilities and libraries
necessary to run any VisualKey project.
Basics
To begin using VisualKey you can make use of the command line interface to either run an existing project or to create one:
visualkey init .
visualkey run .
The created project contains a csproject which can be used to open almost any editor that supports
C#. It also contains a .vscode folder with tasks to easily run your project using Visual Studio
Code, and a .run folder to easily run your project in the JetBrains Rider IDE.
Visual Studio Code
In VSCode open a folder, in which your project will be created and stored. Presse ctrl + ` to open
the integrated terminal, or run the command Terminal: Create New Integrated Terminal in the show
commands panel (ctrl + shift + p).
Type: visualkey init .
Hint
If there's an error message which states that visualkey is not an existing command, please
restart VSCode. If the problem persists please reinstall VisualKey and be sure to enable
Add to Path.
With the default project created, you will have an App.cs which is the entry point for VisualKey.
You can create any other C# source files and they will be linked together at run time.
Autocompletion
To enable autocompletion you need the C# extension. A pop-up should show up when you load the
project recommending you to install the C# extension, but if not, open the extensions menu and seach
for ms-dotnettools.csharp.
The con of using this method of autocompletion is that it relies on an external installation of dotnet. Follow https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download download and install the SKD not the Runtime.
Running
To run your project you don't need any external installation of neither dotnet nor mono. You can call visualkey and run the project from the pre-generated tasks or via the command line.
Task
You can run the pre-generated build task by pressing: ctrl+shift+b in the default keybindings.
CLI
Run the project by calling the visualkey CLI:
cd project-dir
visualkey run .
visualkey run project-dir/